Tykwer, the German film-maker whose contribution to Cloud Atlas was somewhat overlooked among all the hype surrounding his co-directors, siblings Andy and Lana Wachowski, will take charge.

Hanks, who played multiple linked roles in the sprawling opus based on David Mitchell's science fiction novel, will take the lead role of a struggling businessman who quits the US for Saudi Arabia in an ambitious last-ditch attempt to keep his financial head above water and pay his daughter's college fees.

Tykwer has also adapted the screenplay from Eggers's book, which was a US National book award finalist last year. The author is best known for his 2000 autobiographical novel A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which chronicles his 20-year-old self's attempts to bring up his younger brother, Christopher, after their parents both died of cancer within the space of a few months.

A movie version of A Heartbreaking Work was once planned by Hollywood, but Eggers told Entertainment Weekly in 2007 that the film was unlikely to emerge since studio New Line's option on it had run out.